Friday, January 7, 2011

Signs you are Query Worthy

Well what do you think?! I worked really hard last night rearranging all my tabs, getting myself a snazzy new banner and pimping out the overall blog! Must Haves shows you the 2011 debut authors and sequels coming out! And other funness! Seriously check it out! I worked hard and think it rocks.Now to the real deal... the blog post.
Signs you are Query Worthy.

1. You wake up and decide you want to be a writer.
2. You tell your friends.
3. You decide to write a book.
4. You realize it sucks and hit delete.
5. You blog and find friends.
6. Your friends tell you to write again.
7. You write, it sucks.
8. Your friends tell you not to give up.
9. This time, you don't hit delete.
10. You revise.
11. Your revising skills are weak so you ship to willing friends.
12. They send it back.
13. You cry. All you can see is red ink.
14. You fix mistakes.
15. You blog. Your friends encourage you to keep going.
16. You revise again.
17. You research agents.
18. You send to critique buddies again.
19. You cry. All you can see is red ink.
20. You fix mistakes.
21. You made it to level two.
22. You write your query.
23. Repeat steps 6 - 20.
24. Send out query.
25. Get request rejected.
26. Cry and send out more.
27. Recieve Partial.
28. Wait.

OMG I love this post! SO FREAKING SPOT ON!!! I'm in the phase of 'gotten lots of requests for fulls, all ending in rejections thinking I might have to shelve this project for now' and it's killing me because I want THIS book to see daylight SO BADY...

So far querying is going well. The hardest part is the WAITING. And also what's interesting is the difference between editing, editing, editing, and then having to start a NEW book and going back to the "anything goes" first-draft mode.

Sigh, not ready. I haven't put in the work. I keep rethinking my WIP from different angles, POV's, endpoints, payoffs... makes it easy to put off the actual WRITING. I'm 10k in, and have been for months. For me, lately, just thinking about it IS progress... though I think to start a second novel that isn't so near and dear to me little heart.

I was going to change my blog design last night but only found one I love--the one I already used. But then I realized it was perfect for me. I write romance and suspense. The heart represents romance (no duh). The you're in suspense if the water will wash the heart away. :D

(Okay, I know that was pretty sad.)

Great list. I'm about to start up querying again after taking a long break to fix my first chapter (plus I was procrastinating). :D

Let's not talk about queries right now. Too busy working on a deadline of the end of the month. Then February I have to work on nonfiction writing to make money. March looks good, we can talk queries in March, lol

You forgot 'cower in fear of writing the query.' Queries scare me. I get stumped so easily trying to figure out how to write it, how to make it amazing and attention grabbing. I keep trying, writing, deleting, writing, deleting more, finding a sentence I like but writing makes it so the sentence doesn't work.Queries are cruel, cruel things.

Good job on the new blog layout...it looks fantastic! Love the hearts and skulls and crossbones :) What an emotional process it is to be a writer! But how priviliged are we to read the work of those who stick it out! Glad some of my favorite authors never gave up :)

The new design looks FABULOUS! Great idea with the tab highlighting must haves and debut authors. This year will be about editing and querying for me...my few (very few) paltry attempts before today haven't gotten me far. 2011 is it. (I hope!)

I love the new design-- and your list. Things that are true always make me smile. I've sent out a few queries, and am doing a few more revisions before sending out more. Taking the deep breath before the plunge!